In the United States, people spend a considerable amount of time in their cars, commuting to work, driving their children to school and various activities, driving to entertainment and recreational activities, and so on. Do you live in a metropolitan area where you will be driving shorter distances at lower speeds and often idling in traffic? Do you live in a more rural area where you will be driving longer distances at faster speeds? Do you live in a climate where winter or a rainy season would make traction and storage an issue?
Answering these questions can help identify the attributes you value in a car, based on how you will use it. Mary lives on a dirt road in a rural area; she drives about 18,000 miles per year, commuting to her job as an accountant at the corporate headquarters of an auto parts chain and taking her kids to school. John lives in the city; he walks or takes a bus to his job as a market researcher for an ad agency, but keeps a car to visit his parents in the suburbs. John and Mary would rate these attributes very differently and their scoring of the same models would have very different results. Car attributes are widely publicized by car dealers and manufacturers, who are among the top advertisers globally year after year.[22] You can visit dealerships in your area or manufacturersa€™ Web sites. You want to be sure to consider not only the price of buying the car, but also the costs of operating it. If you are buying a new car, you know its condition and so you can predict annual maintenance and repair costs and the cara€™s longevity by the history for that model. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) offers a checklist for used vehicle inspection when buying a used car.
The condition of exterior and interior features can indicate past accidents, repairs, or lack of maintenance that may increase future operating expenses, or just driving habits that have left a less attractive or less comfortable vehicle. Unless you are an expert yourself, you should always have a trained mechanic inspect a used vehicle before you buy it. New car dealers may also resell cars that they get as trade-ins, especially of the same models they sell new.
Individuals selling a used car can also do so through networkinga€”in an online auction such as eBay, a virtual bulletin board such as Craiga€™s List, or the bulletin board in the local college snack bar. Some people prefer a new car, with its more advanced features and more certain quality, but a used car may be a viable substitute for many purchasers. Demand for cars is affected by macroeconomic factors such as business cycles and inflation. If there is inflation, it will push up interest rates because the price of borrowing money rises with other prices. When the economy is expanding, on the other hand, and inflation and interest rates are low, demand for new cars rises, pushing up prices. Your opportunity cost and the cost of decreasing your liquidity are costs of buying the car.
Car loans are available from banks, credit unions, consumer finance companies, and the manufacturers themselves. Rebecca buys a used Saturn for $6,000, with $1,000 cash down from savings and a GMAC financed loan at 7.2 APR, on which she pays $115 a month for forty-eight months. Some people will say that they like to borrow and then a€?owna€? in order to have an asset that can store value or a€?build equity.a€? Given the unpredictable nature of the used car market, however, a car is really not an asset that can be counted on to store value. When you are buying a car, you want to minimize the cost of both the car and the financing. As more of these factors are discussed at once, the negotiation becomes more and more complex. As with any product in any market, the more information you have, the better you can negotiate. While you own the car, you will maximize the benefits enjoyed by operating the vehicle safely and by keeping it in good condition. New cars, and some used cars, are sold with a warrantywarrantyA manufacturera€™s guarantee of product performance for a period of time., which is a promise about the quality of the product, made for a certain period of time.
If you are dissatisfied with your purchase (and the fault seems to be with the car), your first step should be a conversation with your dealer. For his first car Ray bought a ten-year-old coupe with only 60,000 miles on it for a price that seemed too good to be true. Laws protect consumers who are dissatisfied with their car purchases or unknowingly buy defective cars. For a car you would like to drive, calculate and compare what it would cost you to buy it and to lease it. It is not required but highly recommended to have a witness for the buyer and seller signatures to better protect both parties.
Most people want their car to provide not only transportation, but also comforts and conveniences.
Will you depend on it to get you to work, or will you use it primarily for weekend getaways?
Product attribution scoring can help you identify the models that most closely fit your goals.
Driving often and with her children, she may rank size, safety, and entertainment features higher than John would, who is in his car less frequently and alone. Fuel, maintenance, repair, insurance, property taxes, and registration may all be affected by the cara€™s attributes, so you should consider operating costs when choosing the product. Depending on how long you expect to own the car, you may also be concerned with its predicted resale value. All these events affect your expectations of the vehiclea€™s longevity, maintenance and repair costs, resale value, and operating costs, which can help you calculate its value and usefulness.

With cars, as with any item, the better informed you are, the better you can do as a consumer.
Used car dealers typically buy cars through auctions of corporate, rental, or government cars.
Dealers will have more information about the market, especially about the supply of cars and price levels for them. Many people buy used cars while their incomes are lower, especially in the earlier stages of their adult (working) life. Supply of and demand for new cars affect price levels in the new car market, but also in the used car market.
Since many people borrow when purchasing a car, that will make the borrowing, and so the purchase, more costly, which will discourage demand. You can reduce those costs by borrowing more (and putting less money down), but the more you borrow, the higher your costs of borrowing. She could have gotten a twenty-four-month loan, but wanted to have smaller monthly payments. The price of the car should be the same regardless of how it is financeda€”the car should be worth what ita€™s worth, no matter how it is paid for. If you typically drive a car a€?into the ground,a€? until it costs more to repair than replace it, then you are better off borrowing and spreading the costs of financing over a longer period. Thinking of a car as something that you will use up (although over several years) rather than as an asset you can preserve or save will help you make better financial decisions.
If you are purchasing both the car and the financing from the same dealer, you should be careful to discuss them separately. Once you have identified and compared appropriate car attributes, a seller, and financing options, all you have to do is drive away, right? The sticker price is the manufacturera€™s suggested retail price (MSRP)manufacturera€™s suggested retail price (MSRP)The a€?sticker pricea€? for an item. You can help yourself by keeping the negotiations as simple as possible: negotiate one thing at a time, settle on that, and then negotiate the next factor. For this reason, many people who find that process distasteful or suspect that their skills are lacking find the car purchasing process distasteful.
If the problem is not addressed, you can contact the automobile company directly; its Web site will provide you with a customer service contact. Go online to research cars with the attributes you have prioritized, and find where you could buy what you want locally. What sources of financing does the video identify for times when national banks and finance companies are not forthcoming with car loans because of downturns in the economy? Therefore, a purchase and sale agreement for a vehicle must be drafted by the parties involved. The most critical (in no particular order) are shown in FigureA 8.9, a€?Automobile Attributes and Relevancea€?.
All John knows about a car is that the key goes in the ignition and the fuel goes in the tank. Mary relies on the car to get to work, so reliability would be more important for her than for John, who drives only for recreational visits.
Its condition is less certain: you may not know how it has been driven or its repair and maintenance history. Items to inspect in your exterior, interior, and engine checks are outlined in FigureA 8.10, a€?Used Car Buyera€™s Checklista€?. Given the cost of a car and its annual expense, there is enough at stake with this purchase to make you cautious. Dealers may also offer repair and maintenance services as well as parts and accessories made especially for the models it sells. As income rises and concern for convenience, reliability, and safety increases with age and family size, consumers may move into the new car market. For example, when new car prices are high, more buyers seek out used cars and when low, used car buyers may turn to the new car market.
As demand for new cars rises, demand for used cars may fall, causing the supply of used cars to rise as more people trade in their cars to buy a new one. If you shop for the loan before shopping for the car, then the loan negotiation is separate from the car purchase negotiation. A loan with a higher APR is costing you more and, all things being equal, will have a higher monthly payment.
After only twenty-five months, she totals her car in a chain collision, but luckily escapes injury. You are offered a lease requiring a down payment of $2,999, monthly payments of $359 for three years, and a final buyout of $5,000. On the other hand, if you intend to keep the car only for the term of the lease and not to exercise the buyout option, then it is usually more cost effective to lease. Car dealers, who offer loans and leases as well as cars, often combine the three discussions, offering a break on the financing to make the car more affordable, or offering a break on the car to make the financing more affordable. Dealers know this, and some will try to attract customers by being more transparent about their own costs and about prices. New cars come with ownera€™s manuals that detail a schedule of service requirements and good driving practices for your vehicle.
You should understand the terms of the warranty, especially if something covered should need servicing, so that you know what repairs you may be charged for. If the dealer and the manufacturer refuse to make good, you should contact you statea€™s consumer affairs division in the attorney generala€™s office.
Then research the dealership, including a quick check at the Better Business Bureau Web site or your local Chamber of Commerce to learn if there have been many consumer complaints.

First identify a sample of new or used cars you would like to own, and for each choice calculate what your down payment, monthly loan payments, and term of payment would be. The form should include all aspects of the transaction including the full names of all parties, description of the vehicle being sold, and the purchase price amount.
Its annual operating costs can be substantial, including the cost of fuel, legally mandated insurance premiums, and registration fees, as well as maintenance and perhaps repairs and storage (parking). But Mary also knows that she can maintain and repair some things herself, which makes that less of a factor.
Consumer Reports also offers ratings and reviews and also provides data on frequency of repairs and annual maintenance costs. Many people will decide to keep driving their current vehicle until things pick up, unwilling to purchase a long-term asset when they are uncertain about their job and paycheck.
They trade them in earlier in the cara€™s life, so the quality of the used cars on the market rises. That creates an opportunity cost of losing the return you could have earned on your savings. A loan with a longer maturity will reduce your monthly payment, but if the APR is higher, it is actually costing you more. The costs of leasing, in dollars, are the down payment, the lease payments, and the buyout. The APR of the lease is actually 5.93 percent, which would make it the cheaper financing alternative. You also need to consider whether or not you are likely to stay within the mileage limits of the lease, as the mileage penalties can add significantly to your costs. To complicate matters further, they may also offer a rebate on a certain model or with a certain lease. Dealers negotiate many of the factors that ultimately determine the value of the purchase: the optional features of the car, the warranty terms, service discounts on routine maintenance, financing terms, rebates, trade-in value for you old car, and so on. You will be required to keep the car legally insured and registered with the state where you reside, and you must maintain a valid license to drive. When Ray complained, the seller claimed he didna€™t know about the cracked block and pointed out that there was no warranty on the car, so Ray was out of luck.
After researching the product, the market, and the price, visit a dealership, preferably with a classmate or partner, for the experience of getting information and practicing your negotiation skills (but without making any commitments, unless you really are in the market for a car at this time). A more valuable car will cost more to insure and will mean higher property (or excise) taxes.
That slowing of demand may lower car prices, but will also lower the resale or trade-in value of the current vehicle. You also lose liquidity: you are taking cash, a liquid asset, and trading it for a car, a not-so-liquid asset. The more separatea€”and simplifieda€”each negotiation is, the more likely you will be happy with the outcome. Loan maturities may range from one to five years; the longer the loan, the more you risk ending up with a loan thata€™s worth more than your car. The Saturn has no trade-in value, her insurance benefit wona€™t be enough to cover the cost of another car, and she still has to pay off her loan regardless. Since the price of the car itself is the same in either case, the present value of all the lease costs should be the same as the price of the car.
The more clearly you can separate which costs belongs to whicha€”the car or the financinga€”the more clearly you can understand and minimize your costs.
If you have questions about the warranty after purchasing, it may be best to contact the manufacturer directly. Fortunately, Ray had read that a defective car, referred to as a a€?lemon,a€? is covered under laws that protect consumers who unknowingly purchase a car that proves to be defective. Under federal laws, if you buy a used car a€?as isa€? do you still retain rights under the lemon laws?
Moreover, the costs of fuel, maintenance, insurance, registration, and perhaps property tax on the car will be ongoing expensesa€”you want to buy a car you can afford and afford to drive.
You can gain a significant price savings in the used car market, and there are good used cars for sale. Typically, at the end of the lease, usually three or four years, you can buy the car outright for a certain amount, or you can give it back (and buy or lease another car), which removes the risk of having an asset that outlives its financing.
You can use what you know about the time value of money to calculate the discount rate that produces that price; that is the equivalent annual cost of the lease, in percentage terms. Lemon lawslemon lawsFederal and state laws protecting consumers against products that repeatedly fail to meet standards of performance. Under federal lemon laws, in what situations, when the seller does not divulge the information, may you be able to get your money back on a car? If your debt outlives your asset, your ability to get financing when you go to replace that vehicle will be limited, because you still have the old debt to pay off and now are looking to add a new debta€”and its paymentsa€”to your budget. Leases specify an annual mileage limit, that is, the number of miles that you can drive the car in a year before incurring additional costs.
Rebecca will have to use more savings and may have to pay more for a second loan, if she can get one, increasing her monthly payments or extending her debt over a longer period of time.
Leases also specify the monthly payment, and requirements for routine maintenance that will preserve the cara€™s value.
Ray learned that laws in his state include used cars as well as new ones, and when he told the seller, he was able to get most of his cash back.